Range Rover's big gamble on diesels

VW's scandal looms, but an impressive new engine makes the case with fuel economy, range and quiet power.

The Range Rover Td6 is a bold step into the uncertain North American diesel market.
(Photo: Jim Motavalli)

SEDONA, ARIZONA—People don’t usually associate Range Rovers with
fuel economy, but in
fact their aluminum-intensive construction lightens them more than you’d think,
and when you combine that with a diesel engine, you’re ready to break new
ground.

The new Range Rover Td6 and Sport Td6, now on sale, achieve 29 mpg on the highway,
and 25 combined (I averaged 23.5 mpg), which is great for the class. I drove a Td6 and an HSE with
the same engine in their natural element — dirt roads worthy of the worst Costa
Rica throws at you — in the new age surrounds of
Sedona, Arizona. I even got my
aura read (it was light blue).

The Td6 proved more than capable in an off-road course. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)

The
new Range Rover diesels, the first-ever for the North American market, are
debuting amid the fallout around the
Volkswagen scandal, which is why Peter
Wright, vehicle engineering manager at Land Rover, was at pains to point out
that these cars have no bogus emissions control devices or defeat software.

Surrounded
by hugely colorful buttes and arroyos — as well as the occasional startled mule
deer (no gila monsters, thankfully) — we scaled boulders the size of well,
Volkswagens. I was OK at this, but an ex-military off-road expert in the
passenger seat certainly helped. And if off-roading seems outside your comfort
area, Range Rover offers all-terrain progress control (ATPC), a sort of cruise
for low-speed rock climbers (it tops off at 19 mph).

ATPC
is a bit uncanny. Switch the system on and steer only — the car appears to think
out each obstacle and scales it with a deft stab on the throttle and some
carefully applied torque. At 10 mph, it’s a bit in slow motion — serious
off-roading is life in the turtle lane unless you want to spend serious money
with your mechanic.

VW
cheated because it was having trouble controlling nitrogen oxide in its
four-cylinder diesels; the Range Rovers reduce NOx with an exhaust gas
recirculation system that feeds into the turbocharger, and selective catalytic
reduction (SCR) that breaks NOx down into its component parts. That means
maintaining a diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) tank, a step VW avoided. Customers (or
the dealer) replenish the AdBlue fluid
through a filler under the hood every 5,000 to 10,000 miles. It’s no big deal,
especially when the alternative is bad air pollution.

Increasing
the diesel percentage in Land Rover’s U.S. take rate faces some headwinds. The
company would like to see 20 percent of its range with diesel under the hood,
but the VW scandal looms — through no fault of the British company. More than
half of Land Rover’s sales worldwide are diesels, and in Europe it’s more like
90 percent, but the U.S. has long been diesel-phobic. Just 4.6 percent of
vehicles sold in 2014 were diesels.

Interior luxury is a big part of the Range Rover's appeal, even when it's axle deep in mud. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)

Land
Rover’s Jaguar sibling is also unveiling diesels, with up to 40 mpg fuel
economy. It’s not hard to see the appeal, especially of the three-liter,
254-horsepower Td6 engine. It’s incredibly quiet, torque-y (440 pound feet) and
responsive. You get an incredible 658 miles of range. A Land Rover test showed
few drivers could tell they were driving a diesel, and I certainly wouldn’t
have been aware of it.

It’s a gamble, but
diesel customers might well like what they find. The Range Rover Td6 starts at
$66,450, and the Sport model at $86,450.

Here's a video look at the Td6 that points out that diesel Range Rovers have been a staple in other markets for 30 years: